Many of our basic necessities such as electricity, heat, and transportation require the burning of fossil fuels. But when these fossil fuels are burned, they release extremely large amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into the air. These greenhouse gases in turn trap heat into our atmosphere, which has led to a situation known as the human-enhanced greenhouse effect. A greenhouse effect is naturally beneficial to the earth to regulate the planet’s temperature, but when exacerbated by humans when more greenhouse gasses are emitted, the planet warms up in a process known as global warming.

To combat the issue of fossil fuel emissions, which therefore lead to global warming, solar panels were first introduced in 1954. Solar panels derive clean, pure energy from solar power instead of fossil fuels, which dramatically reduces greenhouse gas emissions as a result of energy generation. These panels are made up of solar cells using silicon semiconductors that consist of a negative layer and a positive layer opposite to each other. These layers create an electric field and generate direct current (DC) electricity, meaning it all flows in one direction, as opposed to alternating directions. In domestic applications, solar panels can achieve around 20% solar efficiency, meaning that they can convert 20% of the sunlight they collect into usable electricity. 

Energy created by solar panels is not only purer and cleaner than that produced from fossil fuels: it is also far more reliable, more renewable, and it is endless. According to the Director of Biochemistry at the University of York, “One day fossil fuels will run out and the world demand for them will not be met.” This illustrates that as fossil fuels, a harmful and limited resource on our planet, slowly begin to run out, we must be equipped as a society for the day when we can shift from limited to renewable resources as a basis of our everyday lives. 

Companies for many years have begun experimenting with solar panels as a form of renewable energy, though the market is booming today. In Sweden, there is a solar cell factory called Exeger founded by Giovanni Fili. Exeger makes gadgets that self-charge using solar energy by printing custom nano ink onto their solar panels which allows them to generate energy from any light source. In turn, they don’t even need direct sunlight to charge and use artificial photosynthesis to generate energy from any light source. They are also more efficient than most solar panels, as they don’t require the silver energy-conducting strips that many other products require. This enables them to print the solar cells in any freeform shape imaginable (such as circles, squares, ovals, etc.) and allows them to come up with new design ideas.